Meaning of Percentiles for SAT Subject Tests

Test Preparation SAT Subject Test Preparation
1

<p>Hi all, I've been looking at this chart here: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SAT_subject_tests_percentile_ranks.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SAT_subject_tests_percentile_ranks.pdf&lt;/a>
It shows percentiles and average scores, but I'm having trouble understanding exactly what these numbers mean in terms of difficulty. For Chinese, you must be in the 54% percentile to score an 800. Does this mean that the Chinese test is ridiculously easy and you can miss a bunch of questions and still get an 800? Or does it mean that the difficulty of the test has nothing to do with anything and just that almost everyone does perfect on it? So I guess my question is does the percentile and average score give us any hint about the difficulty of the test? All these numbers confuse me and I was never really a math guy :S</p>

2

<p>A 54 percentile means that you have to score above 54 percent of the people taking the test to achieve an 800. </p>

<p>I’d consult this chart: <a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Subject-Tests-Percentile-Ranks-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Subject-Tests-Percentile-Ranks-2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The standards have dropped since your chart which was 07/08.</p>

3

<p>Can you put that kind of statistic in terms of difficulty? Or are the two unrelated?</p>

4

<p>I want to say yes because if they’re awarding 800 if you get above 50-60% of the people then the test is probably hard. But, I have no idea what I’m taking about when it comes to stat.</p>

5

<p>If 800 is a 54th percentile, that means that 56% of people are getting an 800. Therefore, the test is relatively easy, as is the case for Chinese, so I hear. And i think the curve is lower, but I’m not sure about that.</p>

6

<p>Or another explanation: 46% of takers are VERY good at Chinese.</p>

7

<p>Percentiles have little to say about how hard one test is compared to another when the groups taking each test are very different.</p>

<p>For example, among seniors in the class of 2012, only 7% scored 750 or better on the math level 1 test, but 32% scored 750 or better on the level 2 test.</p>

<p>However, few would argue that the level 1 test is harder than the level 2 test; in this case, generally only those strong in math are taking the level 2 test to begin with.</p>